Observations on politics, news, culture and humor

An exercise in the arbitrary

On the cannabis front, my plea is for a “grow-your-own” policy: consumers would be allowed to cultivate pot for their own use, to give it away, or to join small consumer-owned co-ops to produce the stuff for them. No commercial sales.

“Why not?” demanded several outraged commenters. Why allow use but not sale?

Two words provide the gist of the answer: marketing and lobbying. A legal cannabis industry, like the legal beer industry, the legal tobacco industry, the legal fast-food and junk-food industries, and the legal gambling industry, would do everything in its power to expand its sales, including taking political action to weaken whatever regulations and minimize whatever taxes were imposed.

Kleiman thinks he is some sort of legalization hero for this proposal, yet his logic is totally anti-drug and incredibly stupid. It’s clear that he doesn’t actually like marijuana–he doesn’t want companies to advertise for it so they can sell more, even though it’s probably healthier than fast food or tobacco smoking. Even if it was bad for your body, why should he get to impose his position upon the rest of us consenting adults?

He also wants us to know that he is the “hip” pundit because wants to get rid of the minimum drinking age for alcohol and instead up the excise tax by ten times–meaning roughly $1 in tax per drink. Again, it’s not because he likes drinking. It’s because he’s looking out for us. Higher-priced booze would price out a lot of university students. It would also help add to the “only” 20% of casual drinkers within the drinker subset.

Oh, and the best part? He thinks these are market solutions. Yeah, they are the sort of market solutions that come with a bible in your hand and a hair shirt on your back.

The worst sort of nanny staters are the guy who believe they are taking away your freedom for your own good. And the worst sort of anti-freedom do-gooders are those who base their philosophy in the dirty, libertarian-lever ideas of Milton Friedman, Cass Sunstein and others. If you’re just getting into libertarianism, skip the Republican-lite junk ideology of Friedman and start with von Mises, Hoppe and Rothbard.

4 Responses

The drugs issue is gaining huge momentum. Government policy looks increasingly ridiculous. More and more people are “getting it”. Prohibition just doesn’t work. Cowardly politicans have failed to grasp this nettle for years. Change is coming.

Thanks for the comment, Peter. I read your post. It’s beyond impressive that you submitted your first brief on legalization in 1978. Change is coming slowly, but history looks to be on our side on this issue, even if it’s not for exactly the best reason (tax revenues vs. individual liberty).

Absolutely. Getting there behind the wishy-washy tax revenue reason and then demonstrating the ridiculousness behind all of the irrational fears surrounding legalization might just be the best way to convert people over from neutrality to full-on support. My fingers are crossed for Prop 19.